Pacific Classic Gut 1.30 x MSV Co-Focus 1.23

I've beet trying various poly mains since last October, including Lux, Sonic Pro, Focus Hex, and Turbotwist, and to various degrees have had quite a few arm issues cropping up, mostly minor. And about 5/6 weeks ago I put some string savers into a Turbotwist - Irradiated hybrid which stiffened it up dramatically and my shoulder started killing while serving. Unfortunately since more than a month of using Turbotwist - Spiral Flex (and frequent resting) hasn't gotten me to a point where I feel comfortable serving again, I decided that for whatever reason poly mains weren't for me and I wanted to try the most arm-friendly, spinny combination I could find.

Gut.

I'd tried gut twice before in the past: once in the mid 90s when I was a 3.5 and I really didn't notice anything different or special about it, and once about 2 years ago . . . when a stringer put in some that had way too much give and not nearly enough spin that I had them cut out after 2 hours(!). So thanks to some of the posts here at talk tennis, as well write ups about Fed and Djoker's setups, I was drawn to hybriding gut with poly crosses for spin.

I'd wanted to start by trying a budget gut, figuring that if it was arm-friendly enough and at least comparable to Intellitour 17 (my personal reference string that I used for 7/8 years) then I'd be getting something that was good enough for my purposes and it didn't matter that the budget gut didn't perform nearly as well as VS.

I couldn't get a set of budget gut quickly so I found Pacific Classic Gut 16g and pulled the trigger. Had it strung at 51 x 48.

Initial Impressions

My stringer notched it ever so slightly in a few places but nothing that appeared to go through the coating or seemed problematic. Just tapping the stringbed against the palm of my hand was a revelation: no vibrations going through to my racket arm, just proper contact feel.

Felt great.

I hit the court for an hour today doing moderate paced hitting with a friend who's a 3.5. The first 3-4 minutes were weird as it felt slippery and gloopy and biological, like hitting with a jellyfish. The ball pocketing and trampolining were like nothing I'd encountered before since I've used predominantly stiff(ish) feeling strings, and although I didn't notice any special spin being put on like with MSV Focus Hex, I sure noticed that more balls were dropping in and bouncing higher than expected. After 10-15 minutes I'd adjusted enough to it that I began to feel comfortable plowing through my groundies, especially my backhands. A few forays up to the net revealed very comfortable feel and placement, combined with almost effortless power.

On my forehands especially, I noticed that I wasn't feeling any vibrations coming through to my arm anymore so I bit the bullet and tried a couple of serves --- slowly. Even without doing my full second serve motion, I immediately noticed the balls kicking up a good six feet high, about a foot higher than expected. My shoulder still wasn't ready to go full tilt, but this was clearly very promising.

And the strings may still be a few hours away from settling in and hitting their stride.

Specific Impressions

String movement: none
Spin potential: very good to excellent
Power: good to very good
Feel: very good to excellent
Arm-friendliness: outstanding

(Reference string: Intellitour 17g)

I'll be playing at least a couple more times before next weekend with stronger partners who'll really put me through my paces, and I'll update then.

And if anyone has any questions or items they'd like me to include in this review, please by all means ask.

I was hitting with a 4.0 friend and he felt that there was a lot less spin than the Turbotwist and Focus Hex hybrids that I've been using over the past 9 months. On regular topspin shots he thought the ball was bouncing up about a foot to a foot and a half less high.

Similar situation when playing a 5.0 friend. He was jumping on more of my shots because they seemed to be bouncing lower, but what compensated for this is that I was better able to take his replies and blow groundies by him.

I can't figure out the spin, or lack thereof. It's definitely not the kind of hard, jump-up, in-your-face spin that you get from textured polys. but at the same time, I can't help but notice all the groundies I'm ripping that look like they're sailing long and suddenly drop in. It must be due to some kind of spin, but I can't seem to put gobs of spin onto the ball. Even when I'm slicing it's not nearly what it was with poly mains.

I am, however, pretty impressed with how the strings seem to reward just ripping your shots. And the longevity seems good too, but I'll be in a better position to start reviewing that after the 10 hour mark

In the meantime I've decided to borrow a page from Fed and put in some string savers to see if they'll help generate the spin I'm missing.

Putting in the string savers has definitely changed the feel of the stringbed and made it stiffer -- it's like the poly crosses have asserted themselves more. It also feels like someone tightened the strings by a couple of pounds.

After hitting against a 5.5 guy and a 5.0 girl I've noticed more spin because of them, still not as much as with poly mains, but definitely more. And even though the stringbed plays stiffer, any vibrations were fine with my shoulder.

As for durability, so far, after 11 hours, I'm pretty happy. No notching, no significant fraying, and it looks like there's plenty of life left in it.

String movement: still none
Fraying: slight, like little fuzz
Power: very good
Feel: very good
Arm friendliness: excellent
Durability: so far so good
Spin: decent

I suspect that since the strings I'm comparing these to were all 1.20 and 1.18, the 1.30 gauge thickness is probably a factor in the spin production. I suspect that in order to get both the spin and durability I'm looking for, I may need to go down to 1.28g and drop the tension 1-2 lbs in the future.

I've beet trying various poly mains since last October, including Lux, Sonic Pro, Focus Hex, and Turbotwist, and to various degrees have had quite a few arm issues cropping up, mostly minor. And about 5/6 weeks ago I put some string savers into a Turbotwist - Irradiated hybrid which stiffened it up dramatically and my shoulder started killing while serving. Unfortunately since more than a month of using Turbotwist - Spiral Flex (and frequent resting) hasn't gotten me to a point where I feel comfortable serving again, I decided that for whatever reason poly mains weren't for me and I wanted to try the most arm-friendly, spinny combination I could find.

Gut.

I'd tried gut twice before in the past: once in the mid 90s when I was a 3.5 and I really didn't notice anything different or special about it, and once about 2 years ago . . . when a stringer put in some that had way too much give and not nearly enough spin that I had them cut out after 2 hours(!). So thanks to some of the posts here at talk tennis, as well write ups about Fed and Djoker's setups, I was drawn to hybriding gut with poly crosses for spin.

I'd wanted to start by trying a budget gut, figuring that if it was arm-friendly enough and at least comparable to Intellitour 17 (my personal reference string that I used for 7/8 years) then I'd be getting something that was good enough for my purposes and it didn't matter that the budget gut didn't perform nearly as well as VS.

I couldn't get a set of budget gut quickly so I found Pacific Classic Gut 16g and pulled the trigger. Had it strung at 51 x 48.

Initial Impressions

My stringer notched it ever so slightly in a few places but nothing that appeared to go through the coating or seemed problematic. Just tapping the stringbed against the palm of my hand was a revelation: no vibrations going through to my racket arm, just proper contact feel.

Felt great.

I hit the court for an hour today doing moderate paced hitting with a friend who's a 3.5. The first 3-4 minutes were weird as it felt slippery and gloopy and biological, like hitting with a jellyfish. The ball pocketing and trampolining were like nothing I'd encountered before since I've used predominantly stiff(ish) feeling strings, and although I didn't notice any special spin being put on like with MSV Focus Hex, I sure noticed that more balls were dropping in and bouncing higher than expected. After 10-15 minutes I'd adjusted enough to it that I began to feel comfortable plowing through my groundies, especially my backhands. A few forays up to the net revealed very comfortable feel and placement, combined with almost effortless power.

On my forehands especially, I noticed that I wasn't feeling any vibrations coming through to my arm anymore so I bit the bullet and tried a couple of serves --- slowly. Even without doing my full second serve motion, I immediately noticed the balls kicking up a good six feet high, about a foot higher than expected. My shoulder still wasn't ready to go full tilt, but this was clearly very promising.

And the strings may still be a few hours away from settling in and hitting their stride.

Specific Impressions

String movement: none
Spin potential: very good to excellent
Power: good to very good
Feel: very good to excellent
Arm-friendliness: outstanding

(Reference string: Intellitour 17g)

I'll be playing at least a couple more times before next weekend with stronger partners who'll really put me through my paces, and I'll update then.

And if anyone has any questions or items they'd like me to include in this review, please by all means ask.

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What kind of strokes do you have? Extreme topspin or more flat? I just want to know what kind of game this setup is conducive to.

Moderate spin, but my strokes are probably flatter than I think, hence my fondness of spinny strings. I use a semi western grip on my forehand and an eastern on my 1hbh, playing an aggressive all-court style.

Focus hex was fun because I could really pile on the topspin and play like a clay court specialist.

Moderate spin, but my strokes are probably flatter than I think, hence my fondness of spinny strings. I use a semi western grip on my forehand and an eastern on my 1hbh, playing an aggressive all-court style.

Focus hex was fun because I could really pile on the topspin and play like a clay court specialist.

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Thanks for the reply.

Have you ever played with a fullbed of the Pacific you use in this hybrid? What tension?

Pac Classic is good and you may want to try Bab Tonic+ Ballfeel (16g) as it is good too. I get about 20 hours of good play with Bab Tonic+ BF gut mains/poly cross. I am currently playing poly mains with either multi cross but am thinking of switching back for more power and comfort. Arm and wrist a bit sore.

What's really surprised me is the longevity of this setup: I would've expected way more fraying by now, and also there's no discernable drop in tension or playability in the crosses.

If it had more bite and spin, it would be perfect. So depending on how long it lasts -- and I'm just guessing here but 30+ hours sure looks like a real possibility right now -- I'll go for either 16L or 17g next time.

It really is getting spinnier and spinnier, and the slight fraying doesn't seem to have changed since my last update.

If the setup was this spinny from the get-go, it really would be perfect.

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Smasher,

My wife and I are having the same experience with our Pure Storms. As the string bed "ages" with time and play the spin potential increases as does the comfort. Control is as solid as ever.

For my Speed MP 18x20 I switched from Team to Touch to tame the power a bit and after about a 10 days the string bed is showing the same result. I have a sore ankle and can't play but on Sunday I hit some serves and the spin potential increased dramatically. I had despaired that the MP would never match the PSLGT in spin but not now.

IIRC the TW Prof mentioned that gut mains and poly crosses may increase in spin potential due to the structure or chemical make up of the gut. It may be "self lubricating".

I don't know why but rather than being eager to "try another string setup" for the first time I'm dreading the need to restring at some future date.

EDIT: do try the 18g Co-Focus for the crosses...I switched to that from 17g and spin potential definitely increased. I have some Focus Hex 18L inbound which I'm going to try with VS Black in my new MG Radical OS. I had bad luck with profiled/textured crosses previously but I'm wondering if the super thin cross section will mitigate those issues.

I don't know why but rather than being eager to "try another string setup" for the first time I'm dreading the need to restring at some future date.

EDIT: do try the 18g Co-Focus for the crosses...I switched to that from 17g and spin potential definitely increased. I have some Focus Hex 18L inbound which I'm going to try with VS Black in my new MG Radical OS. I had bad luck with profiled/textured crosses previously but I'm wondering if the super thin cross section will mitigate those issues.

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Thanks Timothy, and I probably owe you a huge thank you for all your posts about Co-Focus, since they turned me towards trying it in the first place!

I'm curious about a couple of things: how many hours do you think you and your wife have logged on your current string jobs, and are you encountering any difficulties with the 1.18mm crosses (ie, the alleged "sawing" that supposedly can occur when you have a difference in thickness of more than 0.05mm between your mains and crosses)?

Further to my last update, it's definitely spinnier: probably about 85% of 1.18g Turbotwist, just about on par with 1.20g Rip Control. For a 1.30g string, that's probably really good, but I just wish it didn't take 20 hours to get there!

The other interesting thing is that my Co-Focus crosses are probably in their death throes since there are now undertones to my mis-hits that are kinda blah. If I had my own stringing machine, I'd probably consider putting in fresh crosses. But since I don't, I'm strongly tempted to take out the string savers as putting them in really seemed to bring out the poly feel of the crosses.

Without them I suspect I'd just get the feeling of the mains, but at the expense of some spin. Decisions, decisions!

String movement: virtually none
Power: very good to excellent
Spin potential: good to very good
Feel: good to very good
Arm friendliness: very good
Fraying: slight, widespread
Durability: excellent

I'm really impressed that the gut is doing well even after 24hrs...amazing! I also wondered that the msv cross must be dead for a while. How many times do you think you will be re-stringing the crosses with gut main? I feel little uncomfortable with re-stringing crosses only, especially multiple times. How do you and others feel about that?

Thing is, I doubt any stringer will take you up on "restringing crosses only". This is when having your own stringer pays off, as you do risk possible damage to a frame that others may not want to risk on someone else's frame.

However, having restrung crosses before, it is also a time consuming laborious pain (pulling out the crosses while trying to not further damage your gut mains). Un-weaving poly crosses is about the least-fun stringing endeavor one can partake in on a stringing machine.

Best bet, since you really like this setup, is next time string it a few pounds lower, and try a really soft poly like WC Mosquito bite. The mosq bite is very slick and powerful, but also has much much better tension retention than MSV. It stays lively and soft for a while. Perhaps too lively if you're not careful, but the spin with gut/MB was akin to your review when I tried that out.

What's really surprised me is the longevity of this setup: I would've expected way more fraying by now, and also there's no discernable drop in tension or playability in the crosses.

If it had more bite and spin, it would be perfect. So depending on how long it lasts -- and I'm just guessing here but 30+ hours sure looks like a real possibility right now -- I'll go for either 16L or 17g next time.

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this may sound like a stupid question but do you tend to play with brand new balls each time or keep a tube for a few hits because in my experience balls that have been used cause significantly less wear than brand new ones

I'm really impressed that the gut is doing well even after 24hrs...amazing! I also wondered that the msv cross must be dead for a while. How many times do you think you will be re-stringing the crosses with gut main? I feel little uncomfortable with re-stringing crosses only, especially multiple times. How do you and others feel about that?

Go ahead and take out the crosses. I bet you get even more spin as the mains regain their ability to snap back.

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Mig,

Even though I doubt the poly crossses are lively anymore, there's honestly no problems with mains snapping back. There's virtually no movment there, notwithstanding what I feel are the undertones to some of the hits.

Thing is, I doubt any stringer will take you up on "restringing crosses only". This is when having your own stringer pays off, as you do risk possible damage to a frame that others may not want to risk on someone else's frame.

However, having restrung crosses before, it is also a time consuming laborious pain (pulling out the crosses while trying to not further damage your gut mains). Un-weaving poly crosses is about the least-fun stringing endeavor one can partake in on a stringing machine.

Best bet, since you really like this setup, is next time string it a few pounds lower, and try a really soft poly like WC Mosquito bite. The mosq bite is very slick and powerful, but also has much much better tension retention than MSV. It stays lively and soft for a while. Perhaps too lively if you're not careful, but the spin with gut/MB was akin to your review when I tried that out.

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Cheers, JT. I think you're probably right and that I'll need to get the whole stringjob restrung in one go, hence my preference to taking out the string savers instead. Personally, I think the best thing for me is to go with a higher string gauge next time so that I'll get the spinniness I'm looking for from the get-go.

this may sound like a stupid question but do you tend to play with brand new balls each time or keep a tube for a few hits because in my experience balls that have been used cause significantly less wear than brand new ones

I normally use ball for the same amount of time. I'm really tempted to try gut but not sure how they would hold up. Some people like yourself say they last longer and others say break in no time.

Do you ever use poly mains and syn crosses? if so how would you compare the durability of that to you current set up

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Yep, I used them for about 8 months and my arm & shoulder didn't like it at all: I found out the hard way that I've got some form of hitch in my serve!

I think the longevity is related to a lot of factors including your racket string pattern, the string gauge, the thickness and quality of the gut's coating, the material of your cross and whether or not it's smooth or textured, your stroke mechanics and how much spin you put on the ball, etc.

Your experience using Pacific Classic mains with smooth poly crosses is very similar to mine. Compared to some other natural guts, Pacific doesn't fray as readily, plays consistently throughout its lifespan and feels somewhat less powerful. I'm not a huge fan of the 1.30 gauge. I like the feel of the 1.25 the best, but have had issues with durability. For me the best compromise of feel and durability is the 16L version.

I also find that using a soft, smooth poly works best for the longevity of the gut. As mentioned, Pacific Classic does not fray as much as other brands. I find it snaps when the mains are notched about 50%, even though there is little fraying. This gut does not last until there are only a few stands remaining like other brands.

Lastly, even though the soft polys do not feel as powerful and crisp to me, I find they do not feel as "dead" and harsh after 10+ hours as crosses with gut mains. Therefore, the string job feels great until it breaks.

I've got over 15 hrs on my current hybrid with 16L mains, although the notching is aproaching 50% on several strings. I would say both spin potential and feel are at their maximum presently. Racquet is a Volkl PB 10 Mid, strung at 54/50 lbs.

I also find that using a soft, smooth poly works best for the longevity of the gut. As mentioned, Pacific Classic does not fray as much as other brands. I find it snaps when the mains are notched about 50%, even though there is little fraying. This gut does not last until there are only a few stands remaining like other brands.

I've got over 15 hrs on my current hybrid with 16L mains, although the notching is aproaching 50% on several strings. I would say both spin potential and feel are at their maximum presently. Racquet is a Volkl PB 10 Mid, strung at 54/50 lbs.

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Thanks Spdskr

The interesting thing about Co-Focus is that it's much more elastic than other co-polys, and I'm finding that it really doesn't notch the mains.

Yep, I used them for about 8 months and my arm & shoulder didn't like it at all: I found out the hard way that I've got some form of hitch in my serve!

I think the longevity is related to a lot of factors including your racket string pattern, the string gauge, the thickness and quality of the gut's coating, the material of your cross and whether or not it's smooth or textured, your stroke mechanics and how much spin you put on the ball, etc.

So honestly, I think the only way to find out is to try it.

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Thats interesting because i've actually had wrist pains recently is both my right and left wrist but more so in my right. Im not sure if i put it down to the strings or bad technique.

I had a long break over the winter (about 8 months) from when i last played last year to starting again this year and as a result my technique and timing was off which resulted in more mis hits, this was made worse as i changed from the head pallets which i hate to the tk82s ones, even though i knew it was the right choice for my grip (sw) it sill took a while to get used to

also when i started playing again this year i strung my racket with blue gear in the mains and i gotta say its the worst string I've ever played with. It felt absolutely dead from when i started playing with it, had no power and tbh i didn't find it very spinny, on top of this it seemed to have a horrible vibration

Im not sure if it was one or the other or maybe both factors that caused the pains

I'm very tempted to try gut but a little reluctant to spend the money when i still feel I'm not playing at my best as it would be a bit of a waste if I'm not hitting the ball cleanly

Thing is, I doubt any stringer will take you up on "restringing crosses only". This is when having your own stringer pays off, as you do risk possible damage to a frame that others may not want to risk on someone else's frame.

However, having restrung crosses before, it is also a time consuming laborious pain (pulling out the crosses while trying to not further damage your gut mains). Un-weaving poly crosses is about the least-fun stringing endeavor one can partake in on a stringing machine.

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I just cut out the poly crosses in my raqcuet yesterday in order to try a different poly cross. It wasn't problematic at all. The gut mains had only the most minimal notching which allowed the new crosses to easily snap into place. Unweaving the old cross was easy. Just slid them out. Could be an advantage of the Prince port holes though.

I just cut out the poly crosses in my raqcuet yesterday in order to try a different poly cross. It wasn't problematic at all. The gut mains had only the most minimal notching which allowed the new crosses to easily snap into place. Unweaving the old cross was easy. Just slid them out. Could be an advantage of the Prince port holes though.

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I hope you had the racquet mounted on the stringer before you took out the crosses, otherwise you will warp the frame. If you didn't, you might have problems stringing the crooses as it will tend to compress the frame laterally and end up elongating the frame.

I hope you had the racquet mounted on the stringer before you took out the crosses, otherwise you will warp the frame. If you didn't, you might have problems stringing the crooses as it will tend to compress the frame laterally and end up elongating the frame.

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People always say this. And I don't doubt it is true. But imagine what happens when you break a string in match play...

I hope you had the racquet mounted on the stringer before you took out the crosses, otherwise you will warp the frame. If you didn't, you might have problems stringing the crooses as it will tend to compress the frame laterally and end up elongating the frame.

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of course, I should have said so as to not encourage anyone to do that without the frame securely mounted. I have a 6 point clamping system on my maching so the hoop is very stable. I've cut the crosses out of my frames numerous times when I'm not happy with the tension or type of string I have in there. It's never a problem and saves time and money.

Of course I'll only do this when the mains are still relatively new. If there's any nothcing I'll go ahead and cut everything out if I feel like I must change the crosses.

of course, I should have said so as to not encourage anyone to do that without the frame securely mounted. I have a 6 point clamping system on my maching so the hoop is very stable. I've cut the crosses out of my frames numerous times when I'm not happy with the tension or type of string I have in there. It's never a problem and saves time and money.

Of course I'll only do this when the mains are still relatively new. If there's any nothcing I'll go ahead and cut everything out if I feel like I must change the crosses.

After playing an intense 2 1/2 hours against a 5.5 last weekend, I was starting to feel poly-like feedback vibrations from the stringbed and resolved to take the string savers out.

Hit with that for an hour on Wednesday night and while all the poly tones were gone, I definitely lost a good chunk of spin and it felt like the strings were pocketing too much. I was pretty unhappy with it and had all but resolved to try talking my stringer into putting in new crosses. So enter the last-ditch compromise: I put 4 string savers back in along the 6th cross and gave it a shot yesterday and today.

I think I've finally found my setup.

Lots of power, lots of spin, almost no poly feedback. In fact, I'd say it has even more spin than before and plays like a controlled cannon. Best of all, there's still no significant notching on the mains, so it looks like a shoo-in to make it to the 40 hour mark at least.

Damn good durability I think.

I'd read with some degree of envy about pvaudio & TimothyO's descriptions of the enormous amounts of spin they were getting, and while I do think my string gauge was a factor, I also think I'm finally starting to get that kind of spin.

I am using Head nat gut mains and co-focus crosses and liking it quite a bit. The crosses dont move a lot (like the Black Venom did) and the comfort and power is nice. Cofocus does indeed seem like a great cross for gut mains.

We might be remaining at 33 hours for quite a while since I decided to give the 17g setup a try and was just blown away by it. New thread to start shortly.

In any event, for anyone who's considering the setup I used in this thread, I think that my overall lessons are: (a) the durability and arm-friendliness are clearly phenomenal, and (b) in an 18x20 string pattern like mine it may be preferable to go down to 16L or 17g mains.

Also, I have nothing but good things to say about Pac Classic and Co-Focus. The Co-Focus, especially, appears to deserve a lot of credit for this setup's longevity since, like TimothyO has pointed out in other threads, its elasticity seems to allow it to compress a bit on impact and therefore not notch mains nearly as much as a non-elasticated co-poly would.

One further note: six weeks ago I hadn't been able to hit a serve in a month and a half because of the pain in my shoulder from shock and vibrations coming off of poly mains. With this setup it took a few weeks for my arm to be able to serve full-tilt, but last week in one of the sets I played, I hit two aces in each service game.

We might be remaining at 33 hours for quite a while since I decided to give the 17g setup a try and was just blown away by it. New thread to start shortly.

In any event, for anyone who's considering the setup I used in this thread, I think that my overall lessons are: (a) the durability and arm-friendliness are clearly phenomenal, and (b) in an 18x20 string pattern like mine it may be preferable to go down to 16L or 17g mains.

Also, I have nothing but good things to say about Pac Classic and Co-Focus. The Co-Focus, especially, appears to deserve a lot of credit for this setup's longevity since, like TimothyO has pointed out in other threads, its elasticity seems to allow it to compress a bit on impact and therefore not notch mains nearly as much as a non-elasticated co-poly would.

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Am about to try this setup to try and get rid of TE.Also looking for a bit more pop in an 18 x 20 K6.1 95.Thanks for the info and updates.

From an article by Joshua Speckman in Tennis Player Magazine this month:

"Federer is one of the few pros today that played with full natural gut for a significant part of his career. He was pretty good with it too, beating Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001 with a full bed of gut. So why did he add copoly strings to the mix?"

"Spin control," answers Ferguson. "Spin is part of control, and he gains both. Definitely more spin, and with that comes control. And with that control he can string way down low. He strings at 21.5 or 22 kilos (47 or 48.5 pounds)," he adds."

"Federer's setup actually bears some resemblance to spaghetti strings, as that invention also used natural gut in the mains and a synthetic in the crosses. Many players find the combination of extremely elastic gut mains with stiff, hard and slick copoly crosses to be as, or more, spin-friendly than a full bed of copoly, while also being more comfortable, powerful and giving better feel for the ball."

"In string-on-string friction tests, tennis equipment researcher Crawford Lindsey found that gut mains slide with less friction along copoly crosses than any other string or string combination. And he found that - unlike other strings, where notching ramps up friction and disables the snapback mechanism – inter-string friction actually gets lower as the notches get deeper."

"Why? Natural oils seep out of the gut at the notches and lubricate the string intersections. This suggests that a gut/poly hybrid might retain its spin-generating potential for longer than any other string or combination. Well, at least until the gut breaks."

"Surprisingly, the opposite configuration – poly mains/gut crosses – slides much less easily. Lindsey says the two materials are sticky in reverse perhaps because the surface of the gut crosses quickly abrades, pulling up microscopic fibers that get hung up on the copoly mains as they try to slide."

Thanks Timothy, and I probably owe you a huge thank you for all your posts about Co-Focus, since they turned me towards trying it in the first place!

I'm curious about a couple of things: how many hours do you think you and your wife have logged on your current string jobs, and are you encountering any difficulties with the 1.18mm crosses (ie, the alleged "sawing" that supposedly can occur when you have a difference in thickness of more than 0.05mm between your mains and crosses)?

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What about any other comparably priced Polys?

From my research, I think I have the field narrowed pretty well for the Poly cross string - which I personally want to be comfortable, hold it's tension well, and be SMOOTH and not textured (so it is nice and slippery for the gut and does not restrict the gut's ability to slide and "snap back") and have good feel - and be well-priced (it is only the cross string, after all).

If you have any input, you know it's always most welcome. My list includes:

From my research, I think I have the field narrowed pretty well for the Poly cross string - which I personally want to be comfortable, hold it's tension well, and be SMOOTH and not textured (so it is nice and slippery for the gut and does not restrict the gut's ability to slide and "snap back") and have good feel - and be well-priced (it is only the cross string, after all).

If you have any input, you know it's always most welcome. My list includes:

I've got two frames strung with gut mains, one has SPPP 17 crosses the other has Silverstring 17 crosses. My racquet is an EXO3 Tour 100 16x18, because it is such a flexible frame already I think the Silverstring feels much crisper as a cross. SPPP is fairly muted feeling so maybe not the best match with a muted stick. But in a stiffer frame SPPP might be the ticket.

Both set-ups are holding up really well. I'm pretty sure the tension dropped over the course of the first couple of times out with each but they've settled into a stable place.

I've been stringing gut/poly at about 54-55/47-49 Probably next time I'll go up on the gut a coule of lbs. Either that or prestretch them a little bit more.